


0: The Fool

by Amrynth



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, Critmas Exchange, M/M, Molly's not dead, Spoilers, There's much smooching, the story of my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 09:44:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth
Summary: “Now is that any way to greet an old friend?”He froze, not moving from behind his book but no longer seeing it.  Caleb would know that warm brogue anywhere.  The accent that left his chest in knots and he ached to hear again.  Damned if he would let them know the sudden little flare of hope in his chest and he pushed it down, feeling angry and betrayed.“It’s not funny,” he said, voice tight and betraying some of his anger but none of the last flare of hope.No really Caleb, is that any way to greet an old friend?





	0: The Fool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mikkary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkary/gifts).



> For Critmas Exchange 2018! I actually had a lot of fun working on this, basically a real good good excuse to write a thing I'd wanted to do. Enjoy!

It wasn’t often that Caleb had his own room when they paid for a place to stay at an inn. He wasn’t actually certain that it would be his own, private room for long; at the moment Jester and Nott were getting into trouble and he fully expected to get drawn into it at any point. A hefty tome rested on his chest as he lay on top of the bed, open to the page he was on but facing down so the pages were pressed against him. Instead of reading the book, which he claimed he was going upstairs to do, Caleb was dangling a pendant from his fingers. He was half asleep, watching the candle light catch in the red gemstones and send it scattering across the walls of the inn room. 

There weren’t often chances that Caleb was alone and able to actually feel his absence. How had someone he’d known so briefly left such a hole in his life? It should have served as a reminder that eventually all the people who mattered the most would leave him. Family. Friends. And yet here he was, still with these people. Caleb closed his fist around the pendant so tight that the facets pressed painfully into his palm and his knuckles turned white. 

He would fail them all. Had failed him. Would fail them again.

Jester’s voice carried up from the common room but Caleb couldn’t make out what she was saying. He tucked his hand and the pendant into the front of his coat. If Jester was back that meant Nott was back and his room may not be just his room anymore. Hell, he wasn’t even certain that they weren’t being forcibly removed from the inn. That was how things went when Nott and Jester had a plan together. Jester’s voice was accompanied by some sort of commotion so Caleb grabbed his bag, book and spell components. He put the pendant around his neck and had just tucked it into the front of his shirt when, as he’d predicted, someone burst into his room without knocking. 

“Caleb come downstairs and see what we found!” 

It was Jester, beaming and seven degrees of too much sunshine. “Ja what trouble have you found tonight?” 

“Caleb I would never find trouble,” Jester said, managing to look scandalized. “Put that down, we’re not going anywhere.” 

He processed the actual probability that Jester had found trouble or not and decided that it was far more likely she was lying to him than it was whatever she wanted to show him wasn’t trouble. “No, I am staying here. I have a book to read.” Caleb resolutely pulled his book out from his bag again and stashed the bag where it was within easy reach. 

“Caleb!” Jester stomped one foot, every inch a spoiled young girl being thwarted. “Caleb, come downstairs and see!” 

“Nein,” Caleb set his book up on his chest so he could hide behind it, blocking his view of Jester. 

She huffed in irritation and let the door slam behind her as he stomped out of the room. After he’d remained hidden long enough to be certain she wasn’t coming immediately back, Caleb lowered the book to his chest, listening to the sounds of familiar voices downstairs. It didn’t sound like trouble and he had a little bit of regret he had disappointed Jester by refusing to go down with her. That regret dried up immediately when he heard the sounds of several feet and those same familiar voices coming up the stairs. Caleb lifted his book off his chest and blocked his view of the door. 

“Here he is! Caleb, you did not want to see our surprise so we brought our surprise to you,” Jester chimed.

Caleb turned a page without responding to make a point. He wasn’t actually done with the page he’d been on but he turned it anyway. 

“Caleb, maybe you should-” Nott started but she was interrupted by a third speaker. 

“Now is that any way to greet an old friend?”

He froze, not moving from behind his book but no longer seeing it. Caleb would know that warm brogue anywhere. The accent that left his chest in knots and he ached to hear again. Damned if he would let them know the sudden little flare of hope in his chest and he pushed it down, feeling angry and betrayed. 

“It’s not funny,” he said, voice tight and betraying some of his anger but none of the last flare of hope. 

When it was clear they weren’t leaving and were intent on continuing the joke, Caleb put the book down on his chest. Only then his heart stopped for a moment, breaking all over again when someone in the guise of Mollymauk stood there in the doorway, smiling his crooked smile and looking faintly amused. There was only so much of a joke Caleb could. Of course the rest of the Mighty Nein may or may not have guessed what had passed between them, may or may not have been blithely oblivious to anything other than the simplest friendship between them. Only out of pure respect for the written word did Caleb set his book aside as gently as he did before getting to his feet. 

“Who is under that? Is it Fjord?” Caleb asked. He hated that someone had put this illusion on and he loved being able to soak in the sight of Molly even if he was a lie. “Did you put Caduceus up to this?” He knew his voice was rising and the little smile on Jester’s face faded until it was something closer to alarm. Caleb grabbed the front of the illusion’s wondrous coat, could hear Jester somewhere beneath the roar of blood in his ears, and his hand was in the spell component pouch reaching for the right ingredients to wipe the smug half-smile from the false Mollymauk’s mouth. 

But he smelled just like Molly, of sweat and musk and the faint hint of alcohol that seemed to linger on his purple skin. That stilled Caleb’s hand, stole the spell from his lips and and the breath from his lungs. 

“Mollymauk Tealeaf?” His voice was barely above a whisper.

Only now did Caleb become aware of Jester pulling at his arm and Nott trying to pry his hands from Molly’s coat. 

“Did you really think that death could keep hold of me?” Molly asked. He hadn’t resisted Caleb’s grasp, had rocked when he’d been pushed around instead of fighting against his grip. 

Caleb shook his hands and arms free of Jester and Nott. He reached for Mollymauk’s face touching cheeks that matched the illusion, tracing cheekbones that he remembered and up his temples to touch horns that an illusion could not have replicated so perfectly nor given actual form. 

“Please tell me that this is not a joke,” Caleb asked, his focus on Molly and practically begging.

The half-smile faded from Molly’s lips finally and he looked unusually serious. Red eyes danced across Caleb’s face before he spoke, choosing words carefully. “I remember the card I drew for you, the last time we camped. Do you?” 

“Ja, I remember everything. It was the magician.”

Molly laughed, catching the trick. “No, my friend, it was the fool. ‘We’re both fools,’ I believe were your words.” 

No one else had been there. No one else could have known. Caleb thrust Molly against the hallway wall opposite his door again, feeling the moment Molly hit the wall and the willing give of his body as he still didn’t fight. Jester was trying to pull him off again while Nott said something about getting Yasha. Caleb leaned close, close enough he could smell liquor on Molly’s breath, could feel his heart through his grip on his coat front. 

“If you are lying, I will burn this entire city down,” Caleb promised in a whisper that wouldn’t even carry to Jester. 

Before Molly could formulate an answer, Caleb surged forward to close the scant distance between their lips. Molly was already against the wall so the force behind Caleb’s fierce kiss was enough to bruise, enough to knock their teeth together, enough that one of Molly’s fangs caught Caleb’s lip in a way that an illusion would not have been able to simulate.

“Oh. Well he looks happy,” Yasha’s voice was quiet and her words dry. 

“Yes!” Nott exclaimed. “That’s definitely why I brought you upstairs. Witness testimony. Nott the Best Detective Agency solves yet another mystery.”

“Maybe you two should get a room,” Jester said, finally letting go of Caleb. She wasn’t quite to giggling again, but it was probably just a matter of time. 

Caleb was peripherally aware of the conversation around him but was far more interested and far more aware of the tail that had wrapped around his thigh and was pulling him closer. It was only when the need to breathe outweighed the need to kiss Molly that he stopped, breathing hard and keeping his grip on the front of his coat. He would have gone right back to what he’d been doing had he not caught the intent, entertained expression on Jester’s face and become more aware that they had an audience. 

“Nott, do you mind if I take the room tonight? Will you be okay with Jester?” Caleb asked. He tried to sound like everything was perfectly normal but his voice was rough at the edges with raw emotion. 

“Oh yes. That’s fine, Jester and I will get up to no trouble at all,” Nott said.

“Ja, that is- that is good.” Caleb wasn’t really listening but he trusted Nott, trusted that she was going to do whatever it took to make sure he- they, weren’t disturbed. Caleb pulled Molly by his coat, backing in through the open door behind him with Molly making minor course corrections so they didn’t hit the wall by accident. 

“This is a new side of you,” Molly observed, sparing a glance behind him as he closed the door.

“What?” Caleb hadn’t let go of his coat, afraid to let go and have hims dissolve like so many dreams. He was real so long as he was touching him, real so long as he was looking at him, tasting his skin, smelling him. 

“Where you let them see you. The real you,” Molly didn’t argue with the white knuckles holding his coat but that didn’t mean he couldn’t reach up and stroke purple fingers along Caleb’s beard and cheeks. “The parts of you that can barely control the power.” 

“You are here to tell me things I already know? Or would you like to get back to reassuring me you’re not a dream?” Caleb asked, frowning at the tiefling.

Molly grinned and the tail wrapped around the back of one thigh tightened. “Why can’t it be both?”

“I’ve missed you,” Caleb said, his voice catching in his throat. His hands ached but he couldn’t let go of Molly’s coat. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

“I know. Frankly, I’ve missed me, too,” Molly said. It was meant as a sort of joke but it carried a certain weight to it. Dying again could do that to a person. 

Caleb wasn’t certain if he wanted to laugh or cry and rather than make a decision, he kissed Molly again. Molly put his hands over Caleb’s, his rough, callused thumbs running across his knuckles but not attempting to dislodge his hold. He wasn’t sure if Molly was just as loathe to separate from him as Caleb was to release his coat. 

They were moving across the room and yet it still took Caleb by surprise when the back of his knees struck the bed. He lost his balance and would have moved his arms to catch it but they were locked onto Molly’s coat. He couldn’t let go yet and ended up falling back, pulling Molly with him. They landed in a tangle of arms, legs, tail, and coat, laughing as each of them tried to sort out which body part belonged to whom. 

“I have missed that,” Molly said. “You don’t laugh often enough.”

“There is usually little reason to laugh. Very little of late.” Caleb had ended up on his back. 

“You’ll have to let go eventually, Liebchen,” Molly said, glancing down at his hands which were still locked onto his coat. 

“Nein. I let you go once,” Caleb said, perfectly serious in his refusal. 

Moly smiled that irresistible half-smile and his shoulders gave a little wriggle. He pulled his arms free of the coat, shifting his weight over Caleb and then back down to slide out from under his coat and wiggle free of it. 

“Molly, wait,” Caleb had a genuine surge of panic and sat up on the bed as soon as Molly’s weight was no longer balanced above him. 

“Shh, I’m right here,” Mollymauk had only moved inches and was right there to smooth Caleb’s hair and reassure him. “I won’t go far.” He hadn’t actually broken contact either, his tail still trapped beneath Caleb’s thigh and not in any hurry to move.

It hurt to unlock his hands. Caleb had regrets for holding onto Molly’s coat that long, and yet, in the same set of circumstances he would do it again. Molly sat on one leg beside him, rubbing his fingers and hands back to life as blood tried to return to them. 

“There, see? Right here.” Molly smiled at him. 

He had always been handsome and Caleb was reminded all over again. Seeing him was like having air back in his lungs, unaware he’d been holding his breath so long. The first time they’d met, Caleb had thought he was ostentatious, ridiculous, a braggart and utterly, uncontrollably attractive. When Molly switched to massaging the feeling back into his other hand, Caleb shyly reached across the space between them and gingerly held onto the front of his shirt. It was a light hold, between two fingers, determined not to let go even if it was silly at this point. 

“Do you want to set an alarm?” Molly asked, looking up from the hand he was rubbing, his red eyes dancing with amusement. 

“Oh, ja. Let me-” Caleb got up but didn’t release Molly’s shirt, and stopped because he couldn’t figure out how to complete a circle around the room without letting go of him. 

Molly leaned back on his hands, looking at him with an amused expression. “You either have to let go, Liebchen, or take my shirt with you.” 

The little nickname make Caleb’s heart flutter and he smiled. “Do not move then, Mister Tealeaf. Stay there and I will return for your shirt.” 

Molly blinked and then grinned broadly, carefully removing Caleb’s hand and kissing the fingers that had been holding on. “Yes, sir.” 

Caleb pulled the silver wire from his bag and walked the room with it, whispering his spell as he moved. When he reached the end and closed the loop the spell was complete. 

“Come back now,” Molly directed.

As soon as Caleb was within reach, he pulled him closer by the coat, tail sliding beneath to wind around his thigh, this time sliding front to back so that the end was up by his hip. Molly pressed his face against Caleb’s stomach and just sat a minute like that, breathing against the fabric, against his skin as his arms wound around his waist. Caleb stroked fingers through his hair, along his horns and traced the shape of his pointed ears. It was the last one that made Mollymauk stir, a little shiver and a laugh that was little more than warm air against his body. 

“You’ve lost weight,” Molly observed. He unwound his arms to reach up and push Caleb’s coat from his shoulders. 

“I have been mourning someone,” Caleb answered. He shrugged out of the coat and set it nearby with Molly’s coat at the end of the bed. 

Molly made a non-committal sound and then looked up at him with a grin. “At least I remember everything this time. Although it would have been nice to meet and seduce you a second time.” 

Caleb laughed hard enough to snort and Molly took advantage of this to start removing more layers. He was careful not to fling any of his clothing across the barrier he had made until he finally had Caleb down to a once-white shirt and book holsters. 

“You know I always like this look on you,” Molly said, already sliding his hands up under the edge of his shirt to get fingers on the sought-after skin beneath. “A bit dangerous. Where’s Frumpkin?” 

“With Beauregard, I have loaned my cat. Which is an owl.” Caleb shivered, Molly’s hands were cooler than the skin on his lower back which had, until this moment, been covered by several layers of insulating clothing. 

“Mmm?” Molly mused, kissing Caleb through his shirt. Caleb’s hands tightened on his hair, one grabbing onto a horn to ground himself. “They’re not going to come up here to bother us, are they?”

Although he didn’t want to go elsewhere, even visually, Caleb reached toward his familiar to see what Beauregard was doing. He did not wish to be disturbed. Most of the Mighty Nein were still in the common room below (when had their sound dropped to background noise he’d stopped hearing?), Fjord and Beauregard were drinking and Jester had a large mug of milk. 

“I do not think they will be-” Caleb started, but cut off with a soft noise somewhere between a gasp and a moan. 

He couldn’t see Molly, his hold on a horn letting him know the tiefling hadn’t left, so a hand sliding up the front of his pants, stroking him through the material, took him by surprise. 

“Ah- Molly- Wicht, please, let me come back to you,” he said. Molly stopped teasing him and Caleb came back to his own body. He tilted Molly’s head back with the hold on his horn. He loved the way Molly looked up at him like that, would do anything he said, would give him all the control Caleb sought in life. “I want to see you.” 

“Then kiss me,” Molly said, hands pulling Caleb forward and down until he sat on his lap and complied. 

Control went both ways. Caleb loved when Molly was his, would do anything he asked, would give him control- but he also loved when Molly asserted the control he craved. Caleb kissed him, hands tugging at Molly’s shirt now to get to his skin with all decorum forgotten in his need to get closer to him. They had to stop kissing long enough to pull Molly’s shirt off over his head but then Caleb could touch his shoulders, trace scars and peacock feathers as they kissed. There was a new scar on his chest, large and different from the small, shallow cuts Mollymauk inflicted on himself. It was deep, covering most of his sternum almost directly over his heart. Caleb’s fingers lingered there but he kissed Molly harder, wanting to take away the time and distance until he could keep Molly with them. He could feel Molly’s breathing stutter in his chest, feel his tail wrap around his waist, could taste his mouth and feel the tiefling’s heart beneath his skin.

Molly turned and deposited Caleb on his back, untucking his shirt and pushing it up his torso. He was already kissing Caleb’s ribs and belly while Caleb struggled out of his holster, then his shirt, and then tangled his fingers into Molly’s hair. 

“Molly.”

Molly picked his head up to look at him, pausing in the act of unbuckling his belt. 

“You are real, aren’t you?” Caleb asked, pushing up onto his elbows. 

He shrugged, not the most helpful answer. “I don’t know. I hope so. I hope I’m not dreaming because it would break my heart.” 

“You haven’t got one, trickster,” Caleb teased.

Another shrug and an answer that was almost serious. “Could be.”

Caleb sat up immediately and Molly stopped unbuckling his belt to look at him. “Do not say that,” the wizard said, looking at him quite seriously. He shifted up onto his knees and climbed onto Molly’s lap, who adjusted to accommodate him. Caleb stroked his fingers down Molly’s chest, crossing all the scars to rest his hands above his heart. 

Molly reached up and fingered the pendant hanging from Caleb’s neck. “I’ve kept it safe, here.” 

He looked up at Caleb and there was a moment of vulnerability in the tiefling’s red eyes, eyes that had seen things most mortals had not and this time he remembered them. Caleb kept his hands pressed against his chest and then leaned in, kissing him. It wasn’t desperate as their first kiss in the hallway had been, but soft and seeking Molly’s warmth. Molly moved his hands down from the necklace to wrap around Caleb’s waist and then down further to pull him closer by his rear. 

While they kissed, Caleb’s hands moved to cup Molly’s face and stroke his neck while one of Molly’s hands found its way back to Caleb’s front. He was probably trying to get his belt undone again but there was hardly enough space between their bodies to get his hand there let alone maneuver the buckle. 

When they finally had to come apart to breathe, Caleb rested his forehead on Molly’s, blue eyes holding red and hardly opening any space between them. 

“Caleb.” 

“Mmm?” He blinked and broke the spell, able to lean back just enough that Molly could finally unbuckle his belt. 

Molly tipped Caleb onto his back again and put his tail on the center of his belly. It didn’t exert enough pressure to keep him there if he truly wanted to move, but it had enough weight behind it that Caleb could feel Molly wanted him to stay there. Deft, purple fingers tugged Caleb’s boots off and then pulled his pants down slim, pale hips. 

“Wait,” Caleb spoke up before Molly could climb back onto the bed with half his clothing still on. “You had best reconsider getting back up here wearing all of that.”

Molly bowed elaborately and made a show of removing his pants. Caleb had never quite figured out if he had learned to move his hips like that while in the circus or if it predated the last time he’d come back to life. When Molly bent and slid his pants down lean, muscled legs, Caleb reached over and wound Molly’s tail around his hand and wrist

“Yes Liebchen?” Molly smiled over his shoulder. 

“Call me that again.”

“Liebchen?” Molly asked. His tail remained locked around Caleb’s wrist as he turned to climb back on the bed. 

Caleb had always enjoyed Molly when he was naked, the long lines of his torso and tail and legs. Molly wasn’t as strong as say, Yasha, but he was lithe and pleasant to look upon. He touched a scar on Molly’s hip, pale fingers tracing the lighter purple. “This is new.” 

“It’s been a long journey to find you,” Molly answered, picking up his hand and kissing the ends of his fingers. “I’ll tell you later. For now there are more pressing matters, darling.” 

“What would those be, meine Wicht?” Caleb asked, pulling his tail until Molly came to his playful beckoning. 

Molly suspended himself above Caleb, deliberately placing one leg between his before settling on top of him. Rather than answering verbally, Molly kissed Caleb down onto the bed and pinned one hand up over his head, keeping the other caught in his tail. He kissed him again, Caleb welcoming his questing tongue with parted lips and shuddering breath. He moaned into the kiss when Molly did that thing with his hips again, this time grinding their hips together and stealing his breath away. 

“Those- oh-” Caleb was trying to find something smart to say, gasping in the middle and then surrendering to Molly kissing the words from his lips. 

They found a rhythm again, Caleb’s arms pinned over his head by Molly’s hands while his tail clumsily tried to search pockets in whichever coat it could reach. “Liebchen, don’t you have any…?” 

“Oil? Nein, why would I?” Caleb asked, straining beneath him when Molly picked himself up so they were no longer sandwiched together. “You were gone.” 

That stopped Molly in his search, bringing red eyes back to Caleb. There was a softening of his expression and he made a small adjustment to his weight. “Don’t move these,” Molly said, giving his wrists a small squeeze. 

He got up and directed his attention to the two coats, checking pockets and giving up on finding what he was looking for after a few moments. “Not the first time I’ve used lamp oil. Is that okay?” 

Caleb was a little startled and moved his hands without realizing it. “Will it be hot?” 

Molly blew out one of the lamps in the room leaving them in a low gloom that left his eyes glowing. “Caleb, it’s always hot with me around.” 

Despite his best effort Caleb laughed, the nervous tension he was holding melting out of his body. While he liked Molly’s naked body, well-displayed where he was standing beside the bed, he liked that of anyone Molly could make Caleb laugh. He loved and trusted Nott, but it was Molly who had made him laugh when he couldn’t remember what it felt like anymore. 

He arched slightly on the bed and pulled the drawer of the side table open. There was a Gideon’s Traveller Blessings there that Jester had left hours ago when they first arrived, and a small bowl probably meant for pipe ash. Caleb set it on the side table and used a quick cantrip to create a lubricant less offensive to him than lamp oil.

“Now, come back to bed, Wicht,” Caleb demanded, arranging himself back on the bed with his arms arrayed above his head. It wasn’t quite the way he was left but Molly’s glowing red eyes moved along his body in a way that conveyed with certainty he didn’t mind. 

When Molly once again joined him on the bed, he positioned himself between Caleb’s legs and the mood altered. He set the extinguished oil lamp on the side table before he started to kiss his way down Caleb’s sternum while his hands stroked his flank and hip. His hands left unbound, Caled found himself reaching for Molly, but the tiefling’s tail kept gently pushing his hands away. There was a very different sort of tension building in Caleb when Molly’s lips brushed his hip bone and his teeth grazed the skin. His touch was electric and Caleb nearly floated off the bed; there was an ache in his core that Molly’s soft kisses and gentle touch weren’t enough to ease. 

“Molly, Wicht, Liebling,” he called him every pet name in the book, hands brushed aside once more when he reached for those ornamented horns. 

“Caleb, Liebchen, be patient,” Molly chided him, pushing his hips back onto the bed. 

He kissed Caleb’s belly and he almost bucked against him when his chest brushed against the mage’s erection. Gods he was hard, he’d felt the familiar ache, the thrill up his spine as Molly played with him like a deck of cards. But somehow he hadn’t realized just how hard he was, how eager he was for Molly’s touch. 

“Wicht, I cannot be patient,” Caleb said, a note of desperation in his voice. 

Molly looked up at him through his lashes, his eyes giving an alluring gleam in the low light.. “No, I suppose I’ve made you wait more than long enough.” 

He kissed Caleb’s belly again and then shifted to lean over him toward the side table. He dipped three fingers into the conjured lubricant and rubbed his hands together. Wary of Mollymauk’s tail, Caleb wound his hands into a blanket at the top of the bed and tightened the hold his legs had on his hips. 

When one of Molly’s slicked hands stroked down the length of his cock Caleb tried to hold back the obscene noise that threatened to spill out, but it just came out a strange, strangled half-yelp. “Shh, relax, I’m here.” Molly assured him, stroking him again so that Caleb’s hips came off the bed. “I’ve got you.” 

It wasn’t going to take much or take long- Caleb was over-sensitive from not being with anyone in a long time; the barest breath of Molly’s could have been enough. “I am sorry, Wicht, I cannot-” He tried thinking of obscure magical facts, statistics from the Crucible, anything to stop himself from coming quite so soon. 

“Then come,” Molly said, running his thumb up the length of Caleb’s cock from base to tip. 

“Kiss me,” Caleb gasped and let go of the blanket to grab Molly by the horns. 

Molly’s tail wrapped around his wrist again but not to push his hands away. There was a darker purple flush all down Molly’s shoulders and chest and he moved willingly to kiss Caleb. He kept his hold on him, kissing the distance and the pain away, kissing the months apart away, kissing to bruise and mark this strange and wonderful creature like he could bind him to himself. Caleb wrapped his legs around Molly as he came in his hands, splashing across both their bellies while his hips bucked up into Molly’s grip. He saw stars, performing a few more thrusts against Molly’s come and oil slicked stomach as he came back to Exandria. 

“Is that better, Liebchen?” Molly asked, kissing along Caleb’s scruffy beard while his thumb traced the outline of the head on his still-swollen cock. 

“Ich liebe dich,” Caleb murmured, turning his head so he could kiss Molly again. 

“I’ve told you before, ‘I love you’ doesn’t count immediately after coitus,” Molly responded, red eyes merry in a way Caleb had never been able to tell if he was teasing or serious. He’d never been able to properly read the tiefling. 

“Precisely how long after coming should I wait?” Caleb asked, already starting his internal clock. 

“One hour and twenty-two minutes I believe.”

Caleb kissed that smug smile, running his fingers down Molly’s horns to the soft, sensitive flesh around the base of them. Molly’s indolent kisses changed into something more heated as he pressed Caleb into the bed. Still-slick hands moved down his sides again while they kissed until Molly shifted his weight so he could reach even further down. Caleb’s entire body tensed as one finger stroked his entrance, reminding him of the sensation of something there and building the delicious tension in his body back up.

“More,” Caleb clung to Molly’s shoulders, anchoring himself so he could not fly away like he thought he might. 

“Patience,” Molly reminded him again, teeth grazing his jaw and throat as he kissed him. “I don’t want to hurt you and you’re very bad at relaxing.” 

“I am- ahhn very,” Caleb tried to assert just how relaxed he was; it was quite obvious he was anything but. “Very mnnh- relaxed.” He moaned between words and attempted to grind his ass down onto Molly’s hand. 

“Ready?” 

Caleb grunted, more than ready and desperate for something more than a teasing, probing finger. It had been months since Molly’s death and the preparation was necessary- even if he was inclined to demand Molly’s hard cock right now and sheepishly ask for a low level cure in the morning. 

One finger pressed into him and Caleb’s eyes flew open to find that Molly was looking right at him. Caleb made a soft, low sound of pleasure and instead of locking his legs around Molly’s waist, he spread them wider for him. 

Molly was laying on one of his legs, still positioned more-or-less between them, and murmured his approval against Caleb’s neck. “You’re doing good, so good,” Molly assured him, voice barely audible over their combined labored breathing, carried more by sensation of breath and the feel of his lips against his neck. 

He fucked Caleb with one finger, whispering words of encouragement while Caleb dug his fingers into Mollys shoulders. Caleb wanted to ask for more, rocking his hips onto the finger and against anything of Molly he could reach, but speech was impossible. He made an obscene noise, completely forgetting how the sound had carried from the common room below, only aware of the finger inside him and the tiefling almost pinning him down. 

“You’re so good,” Molly whispered again. “Here comes more, are you ready?” 

Caleb nodded, sharp and affirmative and not leaving any question. Gods he wanted all of Molly. He was seeing stars again when a second finger joined the first and the two scissored to get him ready. 

“Ja, oh- fuck oh fuck,” Caleb devolved into a string of broken curses which made Molly chuckle warm and low. “Fuck Molly, please. Please do not tease me, I need-”

Molly kissed him before he could complete the thought of what he needed. He pulled his fingers out and Caleb whined, tightening his hold on Molly’s horns. The tiefling moaned against his lips and pressed Caleb’s thighs further apart and up as he shifted up onto his knees. 

“Gods you’re beautiful, Liebchen,” Molly said. Caleb felt anything but-sweaty, breathing hard and laid out exposed on the bed in front of him, but the way Molly said it- the way his red eyes roamed across him, he actually believed him. 

“You- you make me more than I am,” Caleb said, stroking Molly’s thighs where he could reach them. He locked his ankles behind Molly’s back and found a position for his arms reaching up beneath Molly’s. Molly’s tail brushed against Caleb’s hand and the mage caught it in his fist. “But if you do not get inside me right now I will do it myself.” 

Caleb pulled on Molly’s tail, watching the startled expression and the flicker in those red eyes as the mixture of pleasure and pain went right to his head. Molly had been using a hand to coat his impressive erection in lubricant but all thought of careful and steady seemed to flee from his head. 

He wasn’t sure afterward what noise he’d made but Molly thrust into him in a single, deep stroke, then settled on top of him to kiss his face and chest and neck, stroking his thighs and flank and letting the sting subside, let him adjust to being full. So full. Gods if he could stay one with Molly like this forever he would. Caleb knew Molly was reassuring him again, like a scared colt that might bolt at any moment. 

“Fuck me, Mr. Tealeaf,” Caleb said, one thumb rubbing the tail where he still gripped it. 

Molly grinned at him and complied. Caleb lost track of which way was up, his entire world coming to focus on the man above him and the sensation of him thrusting into him. Hard so that their bodies slammed together, the bed hitting the wall; fast so that Caleb could scarcely draw breath. He knew he was loud and he didn’t care, his fingers raking across purple skin. When they both came, Caleb saw nothing but stars and red eyes. 

He reset his internal timer for precisely one hour and twenty-two minutes. 

It wasn’t the last time he reset the timer-the final time would be when they collapsed together in a tangle of damp sheets and limbs. Caleb kissed Molly and reached for something to cover their bodies. 

He touched the red pendant hanging around his neck, then looked up at Molly. “I should give this back,” Caleb said, feeling sleepy and drunk and content for the first time in very long time. 

“My heart is already yours, Liebchen,” Molly murmured, stroking Caleb’s hair back from his face. 

Caleb buried his face against Molly’ chest, eyes stinging with tears as he breathed the smell of his skin, committing it to memory. He listened to Molly’s heart as it slowed back to a normal pace, and let the warmth, comfort and solidity of him weigh him down into a dreamless sleep.

“Ich liebe dich,” Molly whispered after almost precisely an hour and twenty-two minutes of watching his lover sleep. Then he allowed himself to fall asleep as well.


End file.
